Simeon Gheorghevici Murafa (also spelled Simion or Semion Murafa; May 24, 1887 – August 20, 1917) was a Bessarabian politician in the Russian Empire, also known as a publicist and composer. A trained classical singer and a graduate of Saint Vladimir (Shevchenko) University, he was one of the leading activists supporting ethnic Romanian emancipation in Bessarabia and beyond. By 1914, he associated with the revolutionary core of the Romanian nationalist movement, which he represented as director of Cuvânt Moldovenesc newspaper. An officer of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I, Murafa mainly used his position to advance Romanian nationalism. In early 1917, he helped establish the Moldavian National Party, helping to organize its cells in Bessarabia and Odessa. He was murdered while attending a friend's party, after a group of revolutionary soldiers identified him as a political enemy. His legacy is honored in both Romania and Moldova. Biography Early activities A native of Cotiujenii Mari, at the time part of Russia's Bessarabia Governorate, Simeon G. Murafa was from a family of Moldavian yeomen. He was the nephew of another nationalist activist, the Bessarabian Orthodox priest Andrei Murafa. From an early age, like his uncle, he closely identified with Bessarabia's ethnic Romanian community and its national emancipation ideals. According to Gheorghe V. Madan, his friend and fellow activist, Murafa was "a fiery nationalist". An outstanding choir boy, young Murafa went to the Orthodox seminary in Edineț, graduating in 1903. He was then sent to Kiev, where he graduated from Lyceum No. 2 in 1907, simultaneously enlisting at Kiev Conservatory (to 1910) and the University Law School (to 1912). Murafa was originally involved with Ion Pelivan's Romanian national club and library, mentioned in Bălți in or around 1908. In 1908 or 1909, Murafa, Madan, Ștefan Ciobanu and Daniel Ciugureanu established Deșteptarea ("Awakening") or Pământenia ("The Colony"), a Bessarabian Romanian students' circle in Kiev. At Deșteptarea, Murafa was sought after for his melodious voice, which he gave an aesthetic quality to the nationalist manifesto. He organized benefit concerts, and put to music the patriotic poetry of Alexei Mateevici. As noted by the nationalist doyen Pan Halippa, Murafa was fast becoming "the tireless propagandist of the national and popular cause." Reputedly, after decades of Russification, Murafa was one of the select few Besarabian intellectuals who could decently express themselves in the Romanian vernacular, which was better preserved by the mass of the people.